Fukushima radiation could reach Pacific coast by April

Updated 2:40 pm, Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Dr. Roger Gilbert collects seawater near Fort Bragg in an effort to monitor for radiation contamination.

Dr. Roger Gilbert collects seawater near Fort Bragg in an effort to monitor for radiation contamination.

Photo: Roger Gilbert

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Japan's nuclear watchdog members, including Nuclear Regulation Authority members in radiation protection suits, inspect contaminated water tanks at the Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in the town of Okuma, Fukushima prefecture on August 23, 2013. less

This photo taken on August 6, 2013 shows local government officials and nuclear experts inspecting a facility to prevent seeping of contamination water into the sea at Tokyo Electric Power's (TEPCO) Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture. Japan will accelerate efforts to prevent more radioactive groundwater from seeping into the ocean at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, government officials said on August 7, as critics slam its operator's handling of the issue. less

This photo taken on August 6, 2013 shows local government officials and nuclear experts inspecting a facility to prevent seeping of contamination water into the sea at Tokyo Electric Power's (TEPCO) Fukushima ... more

Photo: Japan Pool, AFP/Getty Images

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This aerial photo shows the storage tank, bottom, which workers detected the water dripping from the top, at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant at Okuma town in Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013. Japan's crippled nuclear plant has a new leak of highly radioactive water entering the Pacific Ocean after the storage tank overflowed. less

This aerial photo shows the storage tank, bottom, which workers detected the water dripping from the top, at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant at Okuma town in Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan ... more

Photo: Associated Press

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Japan: Fisherman Fumio Suzuki stands on his boat Ebisu Maru before the start of fishing in the waters off Iwaki, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, Japan. Suzuki's trawler is one of 14 at his port helping to conduct once-a-week fishing expeditions in rotation to measure radiation levels of fish they catch in the waters off Fukushima. Fishermen in the area hope to resume test catches following favorable sampling results more than two years after the disaster, though for now fishing is suspended due to leaks of radiation-contaminated water from storage tanks at the nuclear power plant. less

Japan: Fisherman Fumio Suzuki stands on his boat Ebisu Maru before the start of fishing in the waters off Iwaki, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power ... more

Photo: Koji Ueda, Associated Press

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Police officers search for missing people in a river in Namie, near the striken TEPCO's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture on September 11, 2013, two and half years after of the massive earthquake and tsunami, which killed more than 18,000 people in northern Japan. less

Police officers search for missing people in a river in Namie, near the striken TEPCO's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture on September 11, 2013, two and half years after of the massive ... more

Photo: Jiji Press, AFP/Getty Images

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In this Wednesday, June 12, 2013 file photo, a construction worker walks beside the underground water tanks at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant at Okuma in Fukushima prefecture, Japan. The operator of Japan's tsunami-crippled nuclear power plant said Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2013, that about 300 tons of highly radioactive water have leaked from one of the hundreds of storage tanks there - its worst leak yet from one of the vessels. less

In this Wednesday, June 12, 2013 file photo, a construction worker walks beside the underground water tanks at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant at Okuma in Fukushima prefecture, Japan. The operator of ... more

Photo: Toshifumi Kitamura, Associated Press

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In this Wednesday, May 11, 2011 photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), workers look at a pit, center, which is being filled with concrete after they found another leak of radioactive water into the sea, near a seawater intake of the No. 3 reactor building at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. The operator of a Japanese nuclear plant that went into a tsunami-triggered meltdown knew the risks from highly radioactive water at the site but sent in crews without adequate protection or warnings, a worker said in a legal complaint filed Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2012. Asked about the allegations, a TEPCO spokesman said the plant was aware of water leaks elsewhere but couldn't anticipate the water problem in Unit 3's basement. less

In this Wednesday, May 11, 2011 photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), workers look at a pit, center, which is being filled with concrete after they found another leak of radioactive water into the ... more

Photo: Associated Press

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Nuclear Regulation Authority chairman Shunichi Tanaka leftL) delivers a speech while pictures of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant's water tanks is displayed during a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Tokyo on September 2, 2013. Japan's nuclear watchdog chief said on September 2 that contaminated water from the ruined Fukushima nuclear plant must be released into the ocean eventually, warning the plant remains fragile with many risks. less

Nuclear Regulation Authority chairman Shunichi Tanaka leftL) delivers a speech while pictures of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant's water tanks is displayed during a press conference at the Foreign ... more

Photo: YOSHIKAZU TSUNO, AFP/Getty Images

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Fukushima radiation could reach Pacific coast by April

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(02-26) 11:38 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster has not yet reached ocean waters along the Pacific coast, but low levels of radioactive cesium from the stricken Japanese power plant could arrive by April, scientists reported Monday.

The report came even as some Internet sites continue claiming that dangerously radioactive ocean water from Fukushima is showing up along California beaches - reports that have been denied by health officials and scientists since they first surfaced more than a month ago.

Ken Buesseler, a chemical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, Mass., reported that four coastal monitoring sites in California and Washington have detected no traces of radiation from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant destruction - "not yet," he said during a telephone press briefing.

The briefing took place in Honolulu during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union's Ocean Sciences section. The meeting is being held with scientists from both sides of the Pacific to discuss problems caused anywhere in the Pacific by the offshore earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011.

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Buesseler said no federal or international agencies are monitoring ocean waters from Fukushima on this side of the Pacific, so he has organized volunteer monitors at 16 sites along the California and Washington coasts and two in Hawaii to collect seawater in 20-liter specialized plastic containers and ship them by UPS to his Woods Hole laboratory.

Two specific radioactive isotopes of the element cesium are formed in nuclear accidents, he explained.

One is cesium-137, whose radioactivity decays very slowly - its half-life is 30 years - while the other is cesium-134, which decays rapidly with a two-year half-life. So while cesium-137 is still detectable in the world's oceans from old nuclear-weapons tests, any traces of cesium-134 that are detected by monitoring instruments could only have come from the Fukushima nuclear accident, Buesseler said.

According to a widely accepted model of the oceans' circulation patterns, traces of the plume of radioactive seawater from Fukushima should be detectable along the Pacific coast in April.

"We need to know the real levels of radiation coming at us," said Bing Gong, a retired accountant and self-described activist at Point Reyes Station who has volunteered to collect ocean samples for Buesseler's project. "There's so much disinformation out there, and we really need actual data."

Roger Gilbert, a physician and radiation oncologist who collected water at Fort Bragg along the Mendocino County coast, said he got involved in Buesseler's monitoring project because he is concerned "over fear-mongering on the Internet about allegedly high levels of Fukushima radiation in California's coastal waters."